Video
Moms Matter Road Trip: How Will We Care for Autistic Adults? (VIDEO)
If you recognize Marie Louise Ludwig, it's probably for the work she does as a host on home shopping channel QVC.
But her personal story is even more interesting than her professional one. Marie is a mother of three children between the ages of 18 and 23, and two of them are special needs kids. Well, technically, special needs adults.
Click through to see her amazing story- and how it could impact every one of us.
You've got to be impressed with the way that Marie Louise has managed to take her situation and turn it into something positive that could impact the lives of who-knows-how-many others. I love the idea behind her Stephanie's House non-profit organization, and hope it's a huge success. Visit it and make a donation if you'd like by clicking on the link above.
Also interesting to me was Ludwig's belief that if a presidential candidate vowed to fund autism research and care, he'd win the election. With so many families affected by autism now, you have to wonder if she's right...
What do you think?
Could Obama or Romney win over a significant number of voters by including autism funding in his platform? And what's your solution to the growing number of autistic children who are becoming adults? How will we as a nation meet their needs? Is this a concern you've thought about before?
Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments.
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Runny Isaac
Frango Mint
Tonya Putnam
My 9 year old son has Autism and I am terrified at what will happen when my husband and I are unable to care for him at home. While we are lucky that he is moderately affected, we know that he could regress at anytime, and go back to having the mind of a kindergartner or toddler. My 12 year old daughter has made comments like "When I have my own family, they will have to get used to Cannon living with us" and "I will make sure that Cannon doesn't have to be alone" but I don't think she should have to sacrifice so much to be able to take care of him. The government needs to step up set up something for these individuals and families affected by autism. I have been writing letters to all my government representatives since my son was diagnosed at the age of 5, and I will continue to do so until they finally do something that will help us and families like us.
rightside
See, now these are the people who I don't mind paying for - the people who truly cannot provide for themselves. I have no problem with social programs that cover 100% of the funding/services necessary for the needs and comforts of autistic children and adults - even if the family is able to provide for them.
I don't think we need to come up with new ways to provide for these people - if someone could just address and tackle the amount of fraud and waste in the current Medicaid and Disability programs, there would be plenty of money to care for invdividuals who cannot care for themselves.
twinplus2
My sister's children have autism. Funding is needed. These kids deserve love and support. I suspect if we explore autism further, we would find greatness among us.
shrimpmommy
Amanda Solita Shovlin
my 6 year old has PDD-NOS which is a form of autism like Aspergers is. I tend to take it one day at a time or i would go crazy. Somedays running for the hills crosses my mind too. I don't normally look that far ahead, and he has come so far that some times we will get glimses of a normal little 6 year old boy. I'm not looking forward to puberty as most autistics have it even worse and tend to rage out with thier changing hormones taking control. My husband and I discused that at best he will be able to overcome his difficulties and learn to cope with certain things and will be able to pass for a regular person who is a bit quirky, and be able to live a full productive adult life, get married, have kids...at worse have to try to come up with the money to have him live in a halfway house where he can live by himself and just have someone close by to make sure his bills are paid and that everything is ok with him. but funding for the worse case senerio would be much appreciated as we don't have much money and we have a 18 month old girl who so far has no issues thankfully.
Kelli